I wanted to do something to mark the 50th anniversary of 1967 – a truly magical, myth-laden, musical year when so much changed, separating old from new and leading to a seismic cultural shift, especially via the recording industry – artists becoming increasingly ambitious, with pop music no longer regarded as throwaway fodder for the kids, but the great artistic statement of the age.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of my first club appearance. Last night I played for 5 hours at The Garage and tonight I’m at The Jacaranda to conclude a celebratory weekend in my home city of Liverpool with a talk about what it was like to be a DJ back in those proto-Disco days.

The complete Random Influences is now available to stream via Mixcloud. This is a series of 2 x 12 hour long podcasts I put together in 2010 to mark my 50th birthday, comprising of a full 24 hours worth of music, all 7” singles from my formative years, with only records released before I started out as a DJ in December 1975 featured. As the title suggests this is a random, rather than definitive selection.

Complete with snap, crackle, pop, and even the odd skip and jump, these are 7 seminal mix albums pressed onto vinyl during 1977-79, the latter Disco period. 3 of these were officially released, the other 4 being DJ promo only copies. All 7 have now been uploaded to Mixcloud and are available to stream. This is presented in conjunction with last month’s blog post ‘From Garrard To Technics – How British DJs Began To Mix’ – you can get the full lowdown here:http://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/08/from-garrard-to-technics-how-british-djs-began-to-mix/

I’ve just uploaded three previously unavailable ‘turntable edits’ (as I called them at the time), which can now be streamed at my MixCloud page. Back when I did them in 1984, their original purpose was to help me in my forlorn quest to make a breakthrough into remixing, but they were also played on Manchester’s Piccadilly Radio during Timmy Mallett’s award winning ‘Timmy On The Tranny’ shows, which hit the bullseye with the teenage audience they were aimed at.

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Being a DJ

I’m a DJ from Merseyside. I started out in 1975, but stopped for almost 20 years, between 1984 and the end of 2003, at which point I started again.

One night during the period I wasn’t deejaying, turning off my mind, relaxing, and floating downstream I had what might be termed a moment of clarity. Paradoxically, although I was no longer a DJ in the literal sense I suddenly became aware that I’d never actually stopped being a DJ, for even if I was in a room with just one person I couldn’t help but ask them ‘have you heard this?’, and not only ‘heard’, but ‘have you seen this / read this?’, for it goes beyond music. Already taken somewhat aback by this nugget of self-discovery, I realised, in true eureka style, that this all pre-dates my being a DJ and goes back as far as I can remember – I’ve always had an inherent need to share, it’s absolutely central to my nature. This was quite a revelation.

So it’s no wonder that I became a Disc Jockey, for once I fell in love with those circular pieces of magical plastic during my formative years, it wasn’t a matter of choosing this as a path, the path pretty much chose me.

I don’t intend this to be a DJ blog as such, but more a blog by someone who happens to be a DJ – a place where personal emphasis takes precedence over professional, although, as I’ve already explained, the two aspects are, of course, inescapably entwined.